Despite advances in the polyolefin industry, there remains a need to develop compatibilizing agents for compatibilizing incompatible polymer blends; and thus, which can be used to develop new polymer alloys. Many consumer and industrial products are formed from multiple thermoplastic materials. Some commonly used polymers include non polar polyolefins, such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) and polar polymers such polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes and polycarbonates. Maleated polymers are a useful class of compatibilizing agents for thermoplastic polymers. Such polymers include maleic anhydride-grafted PP, PE and ethylene copolymers. However, such maleated polyolefins are typically used as compatibilizers for PP/polar polymer systems or PE/polar polymer systems; they have not been used in PP/PE/polar polymer systems due to the inherent incompatibility of PP/PE/polar polymer.
In addition, there is a need to develop polyolefins for use in coatings, adhesive and tie layer applications, where such polyolefins provide strong adhesion to polar and/or non-polar substrates, improve paintability and/or printability, provide good flexibility, and provide structural and chemical stability over a broad service temperature range.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,897,689 relates to functionalized interpolymers derived from base olefin interpolymers, which are prepared by polymerizing one or more monomers or mixtures of monomers, such as ethylene and one or more comonomers, to form an interpolymer product having unique physical properties. The functionalized olefin interpolymers contain two or more differing regions or segments (blocks), resulting in unique processing and physical properties.
US Patent Application Publication No. US2010-0093942 relates to polyolefin blend compositions of polar and/or non-polar polymers, with at least one functionalized polyolefin polymer selected from the group consisting of: amine functionalized, hydroxyl functionalized, imide functionalized, anhydride functionalized, or carboxylic acid functionalized polyolefin polymers. Also disclosed are methods for making the functionalized polyolefin polymer and materials and articles containing at least one component prepared from such compositions
U.S. Pat. No. 7,622,529 relates to olefin interpolymers as compatiblizers, which are prepared by polymerizing one or more monomers or mixtures of monomers, such as ethylene and one or more comonomers, to form an interpolymer product having unique physical properties. The olefin interpolymers contain two or more differing regions or segments (blocks), resulting in unique processing and physical properties.
WO/2011/041696 relates to block composites and their use as impact modifiers; WO/2011/041698 relates to block composites in soft compounds; and WO/2011/041699 relates to block composites in thermoplastic vulcanisates.